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‘3 before 8‘ record launch

30 June 2012,
8.00pm to 9.00pm

The Railway Hotel, Clifftown Road, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS1 1AJ, UK

This event will launch two new records ('3 before 8' and 'Stand Up Now') made for the exhibition 'Thames Delta' by artist-philosophers with a passion for Northern Soul Ross Birrell, Simon Critchley, John Cussans. Jonathan Dronsfield, Haroon Mirza and Cornel West.

'3 Before 8'
7" Vinyl Record with Gatefold Sleeve
Edition of 300

Side A: Simon Critchley - Long After Tonight Is All Over / John Cussans - Time Will Pass You By (Like It Used To Be).

Side AA: Jonathan Dronsfield - I’m On My Way /
Haroon Mirza - Time Will Pass You By (Endless Groove).

The ‘Three Before Eight’ were three last tracks played before 8.00am at Northern Soul allnighters at the legendary Wigan Casino: Jimmy Radcliffe - Long After Tonight Is All Over, Dean Parrish - I’m On My Way and Tobi Legend - Time Will Pass You By.

In recognition of the equally legendary status of soul clubs in the South East, such as The Goldmine, Canvey Island, Essex and the University of Essex as the launch pad for the career of English philosopher, Simon Critchley (former Reader in Philosophy at the University of Essex and now Professor of Philosophy at the New School in New York), this new version of '3 Before 8', devised by artist Ross

Birrell in association with Jonathan Dronsfield (Reader in Theory and Philosophy of Art, University of Reading), brings together Northern Soul music and philosophy with new audio recordings by Critchley and Dronsfield, two philosophers with a passion for Northern Soul music.

Using the original song titles, the new tracks by Critchley and Dronsfield, mixed by Birrell, are combined with new ‘endless groove’ tracks by artists John Cussans and Haroon Mirza.

'3 before 8' was funded by Arts Council England, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and Glasgow School of Art.

Stand Up Now is a protest song against tuition fees and coalition cuts devised by Scottish artist, Ross Birrell. The chorus to 'Stand Up Now' - recorded in the style of a classic Northern Soul track - is inspired by the Diggers Song by Gerrard Winstanley, born in Wigan in 1609.

The last record ever played at the Wigan Casino allnighters – chosen entirely at random by Russ Winstanley – was Frank Wilson's Do I Love You (Indeed I Do). Wilson's classic song is referenced in both the music and lyrics of 'Stand Up Now'.

'Stand Up Now'
Vocals: Johnny Boy. Lyrics: Ross Birrell, Frank Wilson, Gerrard Winstanley. Produced by Russ Winstanley.
Recorded in Wigan, 26 May 2011. 'Stand Up Now' was produced as part of the exhibition, 'Living Today', Mackintosh Museum, The Glasgow School of Art, 14 January to 5 March 2011.

Cornel West, ‘Organise and Mobilise’ extract from The Faith of the Faithless: a conversation with Simon Critchley, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 7.2.12. Cornel West is a renowned American philosopher and civil rights activist.

'Stand Up Now' was funded by Arts Council England, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and Glasgow School of Art.

Biographies:

Ross Birrell
Ross Birrell is an artist and lecturer at Glasgow School of Art. His recent installation and film works engage with music, politics and place and were collected in the recent exhibition 'You Like This Garden?', Ross Birrell/David Harding and Douglas Gordon, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, 18/11/11 to 22/1/12. He is represented by Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam.
www.edbprojects.nl

Simon Critchley
Simon Critchley studied philosophy at the University of Essex in the late 1980s, becoming a lecturer there in 1989 and later Reader in Philosophy. He is the author of The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas (Edinburgh, 1992) Infinitely Demanding. Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance, Verso, 2007 and most recently, The Faith of the Faithless, Verso in 2012. Critchley was appointed Chair of Philosophy at the New School in New York 2008-2011, becoming Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy there in 2011.

John Cussans
John Cussans is a London-based artist and writer. He received his PhD from the Royal College of Art in 1995 and is theory coordinator of the Masters programs at Chelsea College of Art.

Jonathan Dronsfield
Jonathan Dronsfield received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Warwick and held a Leverhulme Special Research Fellowship at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University. He is currently working on two books: Art's Resistance to Ethics and Heidegger's Philosophy of Art. He is Reader in Theory and Philosophy of Art, University of Reading.

Haroon Mirza
Haroon Mirza is a graduate of Chelsea College of Art and Goldsmiths College. He is recognizsed for his site-specific audio installations, was awarded the Northern Art Prize in 2010 and the Silver Lion Award at the 54th Venice Biennale 2011. He is represented by the Lisson Gallery, London.